The Decline In GM Customer Service

Hey I am aware that I may get flamed for this post!Back when wow was launched I found the Game Master Service to be incredible the response times and the care and genuine thought that felt went into your support issue. I found that this was the case with the vast Majority or game masters I encountered up to around the end of wraith.And i simply do not understand how the quality of the service can dramatically change so much in the short time since those expansions. I can only presume that as the game has become less popular blizzard either have a smaller budget for their support staff or simply care less. I will give 2 or 3 small examples that I believe show a dramatic fall in the quality of service that we as paying customers receive.

1. Not Last week a blizzard Game Master Told me Fact that it was impossible for them to appear in game anymore! The next link clearly disproves this and makes me wonder at the reason for this blatant lie https://eu.battle.net/support/en/article/200527

2. RP enforcement- Now i know this does not apply for everyone but I have an easy comparison here to make. During TBC I had an enforced Name change because I was reported for having a UN RP name now as ravenholdt was an RP PVP server I can see why names such as "Tangoguy" aren’t rp at all, I’m not complaining about having to change a name but in stark contrast, today you monks across many RP servers that find it amusing to call them self's Bater ( Grand Master Bater) and nothing happens! It would appear that your name no longer is required to be RP on an RP Realm. Which brings me to my next point

3. Wanting to change the name of your guild (Good Luck) So recently I have been told that i may not use certain guild names on my server this lead me to do some digging the guild name my guild wanted was "SuperNova" we were told that we couldn't have this because it wasn't RP so I’d just thought I’d also take the time to point out to blizzard some of my other Guild names that I’d like the clarification on how they are RP all the following guild names are from RP servers : .<CLEAVE BRITNEY ALONE> <DOYOUEVENLIFT><Your mom in a box><Urinal Cake>Clearly these names bare even less relevance to the game than SuperNova and as such I find it ironic that they are allowed to persist whilst the name we wanted, was according to the GM considered to be un RP and therefore banned on our server. Now i take 2 issues with this one blizzard would not send said list because apparently it was too long, now as we are not using floppy drives anymore and emails can hold more info than ever what kind of excuse it this. And two Argent Dawn another RP server currently has a guild called SuperNova, so my question is, how can the guild name be banned on one RP server for being un RP and allowed on another RP server. I simply do not see the issue and feel the response from the GM regarding this issue was more of an excuse to close the ticket rather than the considered and measured response that I had come to expect from blizzards customer support departmentMany thanks for reading my post like i said this is just my experience of how GM services have changed over the years have a good day guys

Just for the start: Not agreeing on false statements is not flaming. For the record.

to 1. If he said not possible or not allowed anymore or whatever he told you: Does it make a difference? They don´t do it anymore. And should the focus not be on helping players instead of wasting time doing nonsense ingame, just because you want to see them?

I assume those requests have been so often that at the end other players that had problems had to wait longer.Sorry but if others have to wait longer because you want to be entertained ingame I think that is missing the point of a Game Masters job.

To 2. Names are still changed if reported through the right channels which is via right click.

To 3. See number 2. Just report them. What is the deal? Blizzard has NEVER been proactive about names. That never changed. So that is NOT a decline it is a status quo. Help them by reporting the name and you will see what happens

1. The tools the GM's use to fix things have increased dramatically from Vanilla. Back then the GM character had to be in game on the realm in order to fix certain things, it's no longer necessary and by being able to fix something from outside the game speeds up the resolution, because speedier resolutions mean shorter queue time (the other thing you mention is an issue). Also, a GM spawning in the game causes a lot of public attention and in some cases disruption, if there is no need for a GM to be in the game, why cause the disruption? You link the support article but the very first sentence starts with:-

Rarely, a GM may need to make themselves visible when contacting you.

The first word explains how little it is needed. I have to ask, why do you care if they come in game or not, don't you just want your issue fixed or is there some other special need you have that requires them to visit you personally taking up valuable GM time from other players in the ticket queue?

2 & 3. The game cannot self police names in an RP manner. They can filter out words that are not allowed, but it can't decide if a guild name is "RP" enough or not. Players should report names that are not appropriate and they will be dealt with.

The first word explains how little it is needed. I have to ask, why do you care if they come in game or not, don't you just want your issue fixed or is there some other special need you have that requires them to visit you personally taking up valuable GM time from other players in the ticket queue?

the issue here i feel is the fact the gm lied by saying they cant. its not a case of did they need to its a case of miss information

The first word explains how little it is needed. I have to ask, why do you care if they come in game or not, don't you just want your issue fixed or is there some other special need you have that requires them to visit you personally taking up valuable GM time from other players in the ticket queue?

the issue here i feel is the fact the gm lied by saying they cant. its not a case of did they need to its a case of miss information

Or OP does not state how the sentence really was. But anyways, as I said before. What difference does it make if he "can`t" or "he is not allowed"? It makes zero difference for anyone. Apart from that, thatthe game master does not blame someone else, like his boss e.g. for not being allowed. " I really want to jump around ingame and intervene in the game, but I am not allowed" oO That would be just weird.

As a matter of fact he will not do it and for us players it does not change what the reason for that is. To call that a lie is just provocation nothing else. Why do you need to know about an intern rule of Blizzard? He won´t do it -> full stop.

1. Not Last week a blizzard Game Master Told me Fact that it was impossible for them to appear in game anymore!

I checked the conversations you had with our Game Masters and I can see a recent one were you were told they no longer appear in-game, which is true, and they only will if they need to fix something that requires their presence.

Game Masters are not part of the game world, so they should be as invisible as possible - that's the reason why really.

Your second and third points - if you come across a guild name that violates the naming policies, report it, so it can be investigated, and dealt with.

We depend on player reports to enforce the naming policies, we aren't able to police it 24/7 and restrict all names from being used (and obviously human being's imagination to mask names).

If you still need assistance with your guild name issue, please contact our support team. In these cases, we ask that the guild leader contacts us.

Last but not least, please avoid creating multiple threads about the same issue (1 | 2 | 3); those have been locked.

1. Not Last week a blizzard Game Master Told me Fact that it was impossible for them to appear in game anymore!

I checked the conversations you had with our Game Masters and I can see a recent one were you were told they no longer appear in-game, which is true, and they only will if they need to fix something that requires their presence.

Game Masters are not part of the game world, so they should be as invisible as possible - that's the reason why really.

GMs dont take tickets and instruct you to use the right click report feature which does not get noticed by GM staff.

As an example from a few years ago a person made a character with the name <removed> in it; it was either a priest or paladin I dont recall. I flew to his location and right click reported. I added them to my friends list to see what happened.

NOTHING happened, I tracked the name for weeks. The person eventually got bored with the character.

Me and a couple of mates have reported a guild called <removed> yet it's been ignored for a good while now.

According to your own list its in violations of*Are mildly inappropriate references to human anatomy or bodily functions.*Are otherwise considered inappropriate for the game world.*Negatively refer to any aspect of sexual orientation pertaining to themselves or other players.*Are pornographic in nature.

All of which range from serious to severe. So yeah, reporting feels fruitless because things like this just get ignored for ages.

I agree so much, I never felt so devalued as a customer... I had to make so many tickets to get some help, it seems like GM aint allowed to help or dont want to help with even the most simple stuff. Like crafting bugs.

I agree so much, I never felt so devalued as a customer... I had to make so many tickets to get some help, it seems like GM aint allowed to help or dont want to help with even the most simple stuff. Like crafting bugs.

What crafting Bugs?

Give us some specific Details. If not we will have to assume you are not telling the whole truth.

1. Back in MoP I used to play BM hunter. The whole expansion Bestial Wrath used to work as a second pvp trinket. Which means that it removes loss of control effects from both you and your pet. When WoD launched, Bestial Wrath no longer removed loss of control from you, but your pet only. I took a look at all change logs. Nothing mentioned anything about Bestial Wrath behaviour - only nerfs/buffs. I created a ticket to confront a GM about this. He were ignorant, and told me that it has always only been working on your pet.

2. In MoP I migrated my hunter to Tarren Mill because the server were permanent cross realmed (Cross realm, not connected realm) with Outland, Stormscale, Kazzak and some others. I transfered because I had friends in all these realms, both hordes and alliance and I wanted to meet all of them In-game. Usualy when someone invites you from another realm, you will be transfered to their realm. However, since they launched the cross realm system, the realms mentioned earlier, was permanently connected, which means you don't need an invite, in order to interact with players from those realms.

Suddenly a few weeks after the migration, Tarren Mill was no longer in cross realm with Outland, Stormscale, so on. I created a ticket and confronted a GM. He played dumb, and told me that it has always been like this, and he told me that in order to to do this, you will need an invite.

3. A few months ago I reported a player for being racist. I'm not going into details because this is a personal matter. Keep in mind that a few days before the report, Blizzard implemented a new system which "silences" players for hours and even days, which means that they can't use /say and other public channels.

I reported the player by right clicking his portrait and clicked on report language. It hit me deeply, I had to create a ticket just to make sure. A few hours later a GM whispered me, telling me that actions have been taken on the player.

Unfortunately, it was all just a lie. I made this conclusion because even 48 hours after the GM whispered me, the player was still online. I am not stalking this person, but I know this person because we do nothing, but hang around Gurubashi all day. So If he's not at gurubashi, then he's offline. But he was at gurubashi every day after I talked to the GM. He could even use the say and the other public channels. So my question is, what possible actions was taken, if the person neither got silenced or suspended. I am suspecting that the GM just gave him a warning, and because of this, I felt that justice was not on my side.

I decided to reopen the ticket, confronting the GM that hours after the report, the person is still online and speaking in public channels. The GM kept saying that actions were taken. After mulitple conversations, I eventually gave up and accepted that the GM wouldn't avenge me on this matter. It made me really sad, because what the player said, cut me deep in my soul.

I created a ticket to confront a GM about this. He were ignorant, and told me that it has always only been working on your pet.

This is not something you should ticket the support team of a game about. Not just WoW, support in online games aren't generally supposed to talk about gameplay. Pretty sure GMs aren't even required to know about classes in WoW because of this, since they don't deal with gameplay. Though they should've just told you to submit a suggestion if you wanted it changed, since it's not their turf.

Not gonna comment on 2 since I don't know how crossrealm works (and they've never gone into details), and same on 3 - not enough information to comment.